"Tell His Grace that I'm proud of him, and give him my Purpleheart bow...
"And please bury me in the Kingswood, so I can rest with my brothers of the Brotherhood.
"I should have died long ago. I dragged out my life for so many years, and in the end, I still died on a battlefield."
Anguy supported the Fletcher, whose dying face still held a faint smile.
The white-haired Fletcher looked toward the king's battlefield and spoke his final words.
"I will, Master Dick." Anguy wiped his tears and nodded. Dick had taught him a great deal about archery as well.
"Longbowmen!" Anguy roared. "Draw! Loose!"
Arrows fell like a storm, claiming Ironborn lives. Only slaughter could answer slaughter.
The longbowmen chosen by Anguy and the Fletcher were all elites. From the safety of the rear flank, they unleashed another suppressing rain of arrows.
"Storm. So you are a Storm too."
On the deck of the longship, Crow's Eye Euron Greyjoy covered that eye, the eye that looked like a pool of blood.
Crow's Eye was the handsomest of all the Kraken, and also the maddest.
Crow's Eye's hair was still as black as a midnight sea, without a single white strand. His face remained smooth and pale, framed by a neatly trimmed black beard.
Euron's left eye was blood-red, but his right eye was as blue as a midsummer sky.
Blood seeped from the crimson eye. With that one look just now, Crow's Eye felt as if he had suffered a grievous blow.
The agony of burning fire, the agony of a soul being torn apart. His consciousness had tried to invade Gendry's body, only for the other man's flames and runes to rebound with violent force.
A passionate soul, tremendous strength. This was the Blood of the Storm, but the man before him was no ordinary Storm.
The Blood Eye seemed connected to the Talent of a Greenseer. One of the Three-Eyed Crow's eyes was blood-red too.
"I should have become a god. I should have reveled in feasts. I should have brought fear and death," Crow's Eye roared.
"Whenever battle ends, hundreds and thousands of crows come at once to feast upon the dead. A crow's Talent is finding death, and I have seen all of Westeros marching toward destruction! Only those who follow me will feast to their hearts' content when their doom arrives!"
"But you met me."
A layer of black-red flame coiled around Gendry, carrying a strange magic.
Lord of Dragons. King of Flames.
"Lord of Dragons, Lord of Storms, Lord of Fire," Melisandre murmured from a longship not far away as she watched Gendry.
"The Three Sons," Qyburn said thoughtfully. "One is Storm, one is Dragonrider, and one is Fire."
"The Mage" Marwyn rubbed his eyes as well. Today, he had seen more strange wonders than in half his lifetime.
Stone beasts, sphinxes, Dragons, Kraken, a gifted Skinchanger, and an even more gifted Pyromancer.
"No wonder the king isn't afraid of Euron. A Pyromancer's power is enough to contend with a Skinchanger," Marwyn realized.
Gendry raised Just Maid, while Crow's Eye roared and lifted his purple-rippled Valyrian steel sword.
"The game isn't over yet."
Crow's Eye's gaze shifted, and his remaining mute bastards charged in, fighting as if they had no lives to lose.
Crow's Eye saw the black dragon Balerion in the sky. Victory or defeat would be decided in this one move.
But it was also a mad idea. What exactly was a dragon's soul?
While he had his men buy him time, Crow's Eye began tracing the black dragon's flight path.
The Bleeding Sea Kraken churned up great waves as it drew closer to where Crow's Eye and Gendry stood, while the Dragon followed the Bleeding Sea Kraken's trail.
"Now."
Crow's Eye saw the Dragon drawing closer in a straight line. Through the Storm raging in his mind, his consciousness locked onto Balerion.
Crow's Eye endured immense pain, for moments earlier he had been burned by the rebound of Gendry's flames.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Crow's Eye let out an even sharper roar, a scream of agony.
Fire. Fire everywhere.
The flames scorched the soul and made the mind feel as if it would burst.
This was no ordinary fire. Runes were strengthening its power.
Within the flames were extraordinary runic images, layered one atop another, as if the force had been strengthened four times over.
The huge pale-gray stone of Storm's End. The bronze giant shield of House Royce. The endless golden chain rings of House Roxton. The Morning Light sword, blue as the waters of Tarth.
Bronze Shield.
Hardened Stone.
Chain.
Morning Light.
Crow's Eye suffered another wound, as though his soul had been pierced again.
Balerion noticed the one who had just attacked him. Crow's Eye had already exposed his position.
"So you carved all those runes onto the Dragon as well. No wonder the Dragonhorn didn't work."
"You found out too late."
Gendry's blue longsword was astonishingly fast. The mute bastards saw only the dazzling flash of its edge before the fierce slashes cut through flesh and bone.
Lothor Brune, gripping Kraken Howl, followed close behind the king.
The dead mute bastards' knees buckled, and they collapsed to the ground, their bodies twitching strangely.
"This isn't fair. I was the one who saw the future."
Crow's Eye raised his Valyrian steel sword, but the edge first scraped across his own cheek.
"I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate this! I hate it!"
The mad Skinchanger sank into a frenzy of his own. This Talent had always carried a trace of madness.
"I once could fly. Am I still doomed to fail in the end?"
Victory was so sweet, yet he could not grasp it.
Had he succeeded, Crow's Eye would have been Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, the restorer of the Old Way. But he had failed, and that made him nothing but an arrogant joke.
Two long streaks of blood appeared on Crow's Eye's cheeks, running from his eyes to the corners of his mouth. Only pain could bring power.
Blood and blood. Pain and pain.
Crow's Eye laughed aloud. He had taken every step correctly, yet he had never expected his opponent to be even more cunning and vicious than himself.
"Crow's Eye Euron, I am the new god!" Crow's Eye wailed.
His mute bastards, his bastard sons, had all sacrificed themselves for him.
As for the soldiers and elites Gendry had brought, their armor all bore traces of Storm's End runes. They were simply unsuited for a soul to enter.
"Bleeding Sea Kraken. Bleeding Sea Kraken."
Crow's Eye thought of his last lifeline, what had once been his own avatar.
Gendry's longsword whistled with a deep blue glow. Crow's Eye endured the spasms and pain inside his body and forced himself forward.
But his speed had already slowed. Soul invasion had failed.
"What kind of runes are these?"
Crow's Eye was in agony. The Pyromancer and the runes had struck him together, and both of his soul invasions had failed.
But he was on the deck. Where else could he go?
Crow's Eye had meant to lure the enemy in deep, only to realize that he was the one who had been lured.
"Die. Today, I am the Kraken Slayer."
Gendry swung Just Maid.
His speed was astonishing. Crow's Eye had never seen a swordsman so fast in all his life.
"Damn it!"
Crow's Eye felt the scorching heat above him. Balerion was roaring as he came for them.
Between Dragonfire and the blade's edge, Crow's Eye knew the black dragon was the most vengeful and savage of all.
"My only way out."
Crow's Eye gave a bitter smile as the Bleeding Sea Kraken surged toward him from beneath the sea.
The azure blade knocked the longsword from Crow's Eye's hand. Then a flash of blue swept past, and his sword hand dropped straight onto the deck.
Crack.
Gendry struck again with brutal force, cutting Crow's Eye's head clean from his shoulders. The head rolled across the deck and was trampled underfoot.
Boom!
The Dragon's black-red flames descended on the deck as well.
Balerion aimed at Crow's Eye's body. He knew the scent of the man who had tried to invade his soul.
Surging Dragonfire swept over him, burning away Crow's Eye's remains, everything except the head.
Crow's Eye's body gradually vanished, leaving only the black Valyrian steel armor, still good as new and even more mysterious than before.
"Without his main body, where will Crow's Eye go?"
Gendry looked toward the distant Bleeding Sea Kraken. That was the only answer.
For a Skinchanger, however, the original body was vital.
Crow's Eye's body had been burned, and his head had become a trophy. There was nothing he could do now.
When they lived as parasites inside beasts, they often became more beast than man, slowly losing their human memories and joys.
Even when Skinchangers pursued long life, it merely meant joining their flesh to some strange and magical creature.
Gendry believed Crow's Eye had done the same, linking his body to the Bleeding Sea Kraken, just as the Three-Eyed Crow had grown together with the weirwood.
Balerion was not satisfied. He let out a furious roar, sensing that some part of Crow's Eye's corpse was missing.
"How did Crow's Eye escape? No, that's impossible!" the Mad Woman screamed.
"Lady Malora, you are suspected of treason," Ser Barristan said coldly.
"I'm not. Crow's Eye is the true god, the only god." Malora Hightower spoke in a mad, rambling voice as she toyed with her green glass candle. "The bastard is not my king. The prophecy says Crow's Eye is."
"Take me away!"
The Mad Woman screamed shrilly as she looked toward the Bleeding Sea Kraken, but her scent had also angered the Dragon.
Balerion spat a mouthful of Dragonfire, engulfing Malora in the flames.
"Crow's Eye is dead!"
"Crow's Eye is dead!"
The soldiers of the Iron Throne burst into cheers, and the boarding battle became even more brutal and efficient.
The battle on the right flank rang with victory. The Kingsguards and elite veterans already had the advantage in numbers and equipment, and now their momentum was unstoppable.
Ser Barristan swung Orphan-Maker, Lothor swung Kraken Howl, "John Strong" swung Storm, and Brienne swung Fury.
"Still not surrendering?" Rodrik Harlaw shouted at the Ironborn.
The Iron Captains of House Drumm and House Guleyn had long since lost any desire to follow Crow's Eye to their deaths. Those peace-minded Iron Captains immediately raised white flags and waited for orders.
On the left flank, Randyll Tarly swung Heartsbane and split the Ironborn in front of him in two.
"His Grace has killed Crow's Eye. We should quicken our pace as well," Randyll said to Garlan.
"Just so!" Garlan laughed and swung the longsword in his hand. It, too, was a gift from the king, carrying the scent of runes and magic.
Yet Garlan's heart was heavy. Victory for the Iron Throne meant Hightower would inevitably face judgment.
The Bleeding Sea Kraken, chief among the Kraken, began convulsing as if it had gone mad. It fled the battlefield of the Honeywine River, racing toward the open sea.
The Bleeding Sea Kraken lashed at the water and waves, as if suffering the agony of two souls colliding. Each of its huge blood-red tentacles was terrifying to behold.
All the blood slowly followed in the Kraken's direction, as though it had the power to draw ripples of blood toward itself.
The Dragon pursued the Bleeding Sea Kraken. The other Kraken all sank into the deep as if they had lost control, while only the Bleeding Sea Kraken kept thrashing and twisting.
One of the Bleeding Sea Kraken's eyes also seemed to be slowly turning red. A red eye was a high-level Talent of Skinchangers.
Boom!
Boom!
The Dragon's flames poured down from the sky, chasing the Bleeding Sea Kraken.
"Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo!"
Horns and drums sounded again.
A vast fleet of warships appeared at the mouth of the Honeywine River as well: the Redwyne fleet from Arbor Island and the great fleet from the Twin Cities. At least they had arrived in time for the end.
"Long live the Storm!"
"Long live the Storm!"
The fleeing longships and Iron Fleet were trapped on the sea once more, together with the Bleeding Sea Kraken.
The ballistae thundered. The Iron Fleet had the advantage in speed, but not in equipment.
Ballistae and catapults howled, hurling their fury at the Ironborn without pause.
Because of the slaughter the Ironborn had brought, they now received an even harsher slaughter in return.
"Nail down the Bleeding Sea Kraken!"
"Nail down the Bleeding Sea Kraken!" Paxter Redwyne shouted.
Paxter looked at the magical creature before him with lingering fear. Though he had turtled up until the very end, at least his whole force had not been wiped out.
The ballistae and catapults aboard the Redwyne and Twin Cities fleets began to shriek, along with barrels of burning oil hurled through the air.
The Bleeding Sea Kraken wailed. These attacks caused it great pain.
The Kraken drew closer and closer to the Redwyne fleet, and the soldiers saw it clearly.
But what decided the battle was the Lookout's grappling hook. It lodged perfectly in the flesh of the Kraken's head, which had been softened by the Dragon's flames, and sank deep because of the Kraken's lightning-fast reaction.
"Tie it to the mast!"
"Quick! Quick! Quick!"
The iron chain was fastened to the warship's mainmast. The ship's own weight combined with the force of the Kraken retracting its tentacle, tearing a jagged gash across its head.
The Bleeding Sea Kraken furiously pulled at its tentacles. The strength of its tugging even sent the great warship lurching from side to side.
But it only brought the Kraken more and more pain. Red blood slowly spread across the sea.
Seeing how well the tactic worked, many warships began doing the same.
For a moment, grappling hooks flew through the air, all aimed at the Bleeding Sea Kraken's flesh where the flames had burned it soft.
They hooked the Kraken with iron hooks, then tied the hooks to the masts.
"Dracarys!"
The Dragons danced wildly in the sky, spraying Dragonfire again and again at the Kraken's exposed body, wave after wave.
All the Dragonfire converged on the surfaced Bleeding Sea Kraken, roasting it until it was charred and foul.
Countless torments piled together: overlapping souls, the roasting of Dragonfire, iron hooks thrown into its body and pulled tight, and the pounding of ballista bolts.
At last, the Bleeding Sea Kraken stopped struggling.
The ritual that would turn its eye red never fully completed. The eye remained half black and half red.
The Kraken's enormous body floated on the surface, belly-up like a dead fish.
Balerion still did not come forward at once. The Dragon kept spraying fire fiercely at the Kraken's head.
The Dragon did not forget to finish the job, and only stopped once the Kraken was thoroughly roasted.
For a moment, the world seemed to open wide. With Crow's Eye's complete death, the wind and waves returned to normal.